Chhath: Worshipping the goddess who brought dead child back to life

Mahottari, Oct. 30: Priyavrata, the son of Swayambhu Manu (the first ruler of the Earth) and the spiritual grandson of Brahma, was a pious man with little interest in worldly affairs. 

He desired to devote his life to meditation and service and wanted to remain a bachelor for eternity. Unfortunately, this clashed with the wishes of his family and he was forced to marry a woman who would be known to the world as Malini. 

Perhaps because of this coerced nature of their relationship, the couple could not conceive. So, on the advice of the great sage Kashyap, Priyavrata and Malini performed the son-bearing Putrakamesti Yagya. As the story included in the Brahmavaivarta Puran goes, this Yagya worked and after a 12-year pregnancy, Malini gave birth to a son. But the child was stillborn.

This brought great sadness to Priyavrata and Malini but what more could they do? Their son was dead.

But such is the nature of this world that it requires ceremonies even in grief. Now was not the time for the parents to mourn the loss of their child for they had rites to perform.

Priyavrata understood this and, barely holding himself together, took his child’s body for cremation. He walked alone, along deserted paths in what seemed like a deserted world, on his way to the cremation Ghat until he was stopped by a celestial woman. The woman appeared before him and introduced herself as the goddess Sasthi, the daughter of Brahma and the wife of Lord Kartikye.

Unable to see the sorrow of someone as devout and virtuous as Priyavrata, she brought his boy to life and named him Suvarta. But Suvarta was a child much too divine to inhabit this lowly Earth. So, Sasthi sought to take him back with her to heaven.

Priyavrata could not let this happen. He could let his son be taken from him. So, he begged the goddess to leave him. Sasthi agreed but only on the condition that Priyavrata use his position as the son of Manu to get the world to worship her. He accepted and announced that Sasthi would be worshipped, as the patron deity of infants and children, on the sixth day of every month and the sixth day after childbirth.

Over time, Sasthi acquired the name Chhathi and began to be affectionately called ‘Maiya’ or mother. And, according to legends, Chhath is the particular festival that originated in her name.

This year, Chhath began on Friday on the fourth day (Chaturthi) of the bright half of the Nepali month of Kartik. And the day of the Sanjhiya Argha, which is the day many associate with the festival and the day declared a national holiday, falls on Sunday. 

Chhath is a grand festival of Mithi

lanchal celebrated by Hindus in Nepal and India, said religious scholar Chandra Pathak. “Primarily dedicated to the Sun God and the Chhati (Sasthi) Maiya, Chhath begins from and is celebrated over four main days,” he added.

It is an occasion of great joy, shared Aadhavi Bhagat, a resident of Chhireshwor, Dhanusha. “People return home, families get together and everyone is happy,” she said.

Bhagat, 63, told The Rising Nepal that Chhath started from the day of Chaturthi “which we call Nahaya Khaya.”

“We wake up early in the morning, take a dip in the nearest pond or river and eat a meal devoid of any ‘impurities’ like garlic and onion,” she said.

The second day is the Kharna when those fasting abstain from consuming any food or drinking any water and prepare a unique Prasad of rice pudding and Roti flatbread over an earthen kiln. “We only eat the Prasad after sunset after offering it to a host of designated deities,” Bhagat said, adding that many people, especially women, undertook strict multi-day fasts during Chhath to cleanse their bodies and to get their wishes fulfilled.

The third day is when devotees mark the Sanjhiya Argha by gathering on the banks of water bodies and worshipping the setting sun.

“Those who have made votive pledges (Bhakal) carry out additional rituals and make extra offerings to the sun,” she said, adding, “After sunset, women also sing various songs asking the Sun God to return for worship the next morning.” At dawn on the fourth day, people offer Argha, which consists of fruits, sweets and various traditional food items, to the rising sun and the festival concludes.

Bhagat informed that these were the rituals carried out for the Badka (Grand) Chhath of Kartik and that there was also an equally significant Chhath celebrated in the Bikram Sambat month of Chaitra.

Scholar Pathak believed that both these Chhaths have been celebrated since prehistoric times, asserting that the Hindu epic Mahabharat mentions that the five Pandav brothers and their wife Draupadi fasted for Chhath when they took up their forest residency (Ban Baas). “Chhath has been celebrated, in one form or the other, for aeons,” he asserted. 

But, up until a few decades ago, these celebrations were only limited to the plains in Nepal. However, many in the hills have also steadily been adopting it. The President also participates in the Chhath ceremonies held at various locations in the capital Kathmandu.